Up First from NPR
Trump Meets Syria's President, Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks, RFK Jr. On Capitol Hill
Wed, 14 May 2025
President Trump is meeting with Syria's new leader as the administration prepares to lift sanctions on the country. Could he also participate in Ukraine-Russia peace talks in Turkey? Plus, on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to defend his sweeping changes at the Department of Health and Human Services.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Ryland Barton, Diane Webber, Ally Schweitzer and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ana Perez, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis, and our technical director is Carleigh Strange. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What is President Trump's new stance on Syria and why is it significant?
Chapter 2: Who is Syria's new president and what was his previous designation by the US?
Just a few months ago, Syria's new president was on the United States list of designated terrorists.
Now he's meeting with President Trump as the U.S. adopts a new stance towards Syria after the fall of Assad's regime.
I'm Michelle Martin, that's A. Martinez, and this is Up First from NPR News. Russia and Ukraine are scheduled to hold peace talks this week. Still unclear as whether President Trump will attend. Ukraine's president questions whether Putin will either.
Russia is not ready for any kind of negotiation.
And Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services are streamlining the agency. But are they, quote, making America healthy again? Lawmakers get a chance to ask today. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.
Politics is a lot these days. I'm Sarah McCammon, a co-host of the NPR Politics Podcast, and I'll be the first to tell you what happens in Washington definitely demands some decoding. That's why our show makes politics as easy as possible to wrap your head around. Join us as we make politics make sense on the NPR Politics Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Shortwave thinks of science as an invisible force showing up in your everyday life. Powering the food you eat, the medicine you use, the tech in your pocket. Science is approachable because it's already part of your life. Come explore these connections on the Shortwave podcast from NPR.
On the Indicator from Planet Money podcast, we're here to help you make sense of the economic news from Trump's tariffs. It's called in game theory a trigger strategy, or sometimes called grim trigger, which sort of has a cowboy-esque ring to it. To what exactly a sovereign wealth fund is. For insight every weekday, listen to NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money.
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Chapter 3: What are the details and implications of Trump's meeting with Syria's leader in Riyadh?
President Trump is in Saudi Arabia. Yeah, he met in Riyadh with Syria's new leader, who just months ago was on the U.S. designated list of terrorists with a $10 million bounty on his head. The meeting comes after Trump saying he will lift decades of U.S. sanctions on Syria, the country's economy struggling following its civil war and the ouster of the Assad regime.
To talk about this and more, we're joined by NPR's Aya Batraoui in Riyadh. Hi, Aya. Good morning. Good morning, Michelle. So how significant is Trump's decision to lift sanctions on Syria?
Michelle, this could transform the region, not just Syria. And to get a sense of how big this decision is, have a listen to the reaction in the room when Trump announced this. He was at an investment forum in Riyadh in front of the Saudi crown prince when he said this.
I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness.
So this brought Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the entire room to their feet in a standing ovation. And it matters because Syria is a pillar of the Middle East. It's a beacon of culture and intellect. But for more than a decade, it was crumbling and it was impoverished from civil war. This destabilized parts of the region. And throughout, those sanctions were really hurting average Syrians.
You know, hospitals were struggling to get spare parts to keep machines or even elevators running. But now Trump says that was then and this is now. And this new Syria, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, says it's ready to build a relationship with the United States. Now, Trump's meeting with him today lasted half an hour. It included the Saudi crown prince and Turkey's president joined over the phone.
They touched on security concerns that the U.S. has with some extremist groups still in Syria. Another reason this reset matters, though, Michelle, is that Arab states don't want Iran to have a foothold in Syria anymore, and the U.S. doesn't want Russia building back its bases there.
So, you know, we heard those cheers in the room, but is anybody not on board with this decision to lift sanctions? Yeah.
You know, lifting sanctions like this will be a complicated process. Syria is listed as a state sponsor of terrorism, and for that to be changed, this would have to go through Congress. Also, Israel has been carrying out airstrikes inside Syria for months. They call the new government extremists, and they have troops positioned deep inside Syrian territory indefinitely.
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Chapter 4: How are US-Saudi business deals evolving during Trump's Middle East visit?
Representatives from Russia and Ukraine are expected to gather in Turkey for negotiations, their first since the early months of the Kremlin's full-scale invasion in 2022.
NPR's Charles Maines is covering this story. He's online from Moscow. Charles, how do these talks even come about?
Yeah, sure. You know, to a degree, I think you can credit efforts by the Trump administration to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, even if at times those efforts skewed heavily in Russia's favor. Because this meeting, it comes amid wrangling between Moscow and Kiev to show President Trump they're the more serious party for peace, or at least the other is an obstacle to it.
Show Trump? It makes it sound like they're almost competing for Trump's favor. I mean, is that what's happening here?
You know, it does seem that way. This latest maneuvering began after Russian President Vladimir Putin unilaterally called for a three-day ceasefire around events marking the Soviet victory in World War II. That was last week. Ukraine never agreed, but only because it said, why just three days? We could have a longer ceasefire.
That idea got backing from Europe and the U.S., who, to give it some teeth, threatened new sanctions if Putin didn't commit to an immediate 30-day ceasefire. But instead, Putin made a counteroffer. He called for direct talks with Ukraine starting Thursday in Istanbul. Let's listen.
So here Putin says military operations are ongoing, a war is happening, and we are offering to return to negotiations, adding what could be bad about that.
So, I mean, is this a change of heart for Russia or a political tactic?
Well, it certainly appears strategic. President Trump endorsed the idea and demanded Ukraine participate. And that's forced Europe to hold off on new sanctions against Russia for now. So it's bought Moscow some time.
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Chapter 5: What role does Qatar play in the Middle East and what is Trump's agenda there?
All right. That's NPR's Charles Maines in Moscow. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be on Capitol Hill today testifying for the first time since he became Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Since Kennedy was sworn in in February, he has moved to reshape the department, firing thousands of people, canceling billions of dollars in grants and purging scientific leaders.
NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin is here to give us a preview of today's hearing. So it sounds like Kennedy has a very busy day today.
Yeah. So in the morning, he's testifying in the House before the Appropriations Committee. And in the afternoon, he heads to the Senate. There, he'll testify before the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. And the topic for both hearings is the president's budget proposal for HHS. Kennedy will explain why he wants less money for his department in the coming year.
And that's certainly connected to the Doge effort to shrink government. But Kennedy is also trying to fundamentally reshape the mission of HHS and reorient it to his priorities.
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Chapter 6: What is the current state of Russia-Ukraine peace talks and will Trump attend?
All right. So tell us about those priorities, because I know he's worried about chronic diseases.
Yeah, he calls it a chronic disease epidemic. He even ties the size of HHS in terms of staff and budget with what he describes as the worsening health of the American population. As a reminder, HHS is the health umbrella agency, so it oversees CDC, the FDA, Medicaid and Medicare, the NIH. In April, Kennedy fired 10,000 staff members, eliminating whole centers and divisions across the department.
Here he is on NewsNation earlier this month defending those moves.
It's not throwing money at it or hiring people that is solving the problem. We have so much redundancy in our agency. We have 100 communications departments. We have 40 IT departments. We have 40 procurement departments. We're streamlining the agency and we're recalibrating its trajectory.
I should say the rollout of these firings has been chaotic and Kennedy has not seemed to be terribly familiar with what and who have been cut and what remains. He said the speed of the firings was necessary to not lose, quote, political momentum.
All right. So a lot happening. What will you be listening for and what questions are you expecting?
Well, definitely there'll be questions about the overhaul. As I said, whole centers at CDC were eliminated, including violence prevention, reproductive health, workplace safety, including services for coal miners with black lung. At FDA, food safety labs were hit. Some routine inspections have been delayed or canceled.
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Chapter 7: How are Russia and Ukraine using peace talks strategically in negotiations?
Chapter 8: What are Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s proposed changes at HHS?
And Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services are streamlining the agency. But are they, quote, making America healthy again? Lawmakers get a chance to ask today. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.
Politics is a lot these days. I'm Sarah McCammon, a co-host of the NPR Politics Podcast, and I'll be the first to tell you what happens in Washington definitely demands some decoding. That's why our show makes politics as easy as possible to wrap your head around. Join us as we make politics make sense on the NPR Politics Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts.
Shortwave thinks of science as an invisible force showing up in your everyday life. Powering the food you eat, the medicine you use, the tech in your pocket. Science is approachable because it's already part of your life. Come explore these connections on the Shortwave podcast from NPR.
On the Indicator from Planet Money podcast, we're here to help you make sense of the economic news from Trump's tariffs. It's called in game theory a trigger strategy, or sometimes called grim trigger, which sort of has a cowboy-esque ring to it. To what exactly a sovereign wealth fund is. For insight every weekday, listen to NPR's The Indicator from Planet Money.
President Trump is in Saudi Arabia. Yeah, he met in Riyadh with Syria's new leader, who just months ago was on the U.S. designated list of terrorists with a $10 million bounty on his head. The meeting comes after Trump saying he will lift decades of U.S. sanctions on Syria, the country's economy struggling following its civil war and the ouster of the Assad regime.
To talk about this and more, we're joined by NPR's Aya Batraoui in Riyadh. Hi, Aya. Good morning. Good morning, Michelle. So how significant is Trump's decision to lift sanctions on Syria?
Michelle, this could transform the region, not just Syria. And to get a sense of how big this decision is, have a listen to the reaction in the room when Trump announced this. He was at an investment forum in Riyadh in front of the Saudi crown prince when he said this.
I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness.
So this brought Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the entire room to their feet in a standing ovation. And it matters because Syria is a pillar of the Middle East. It's a beacon of culture and intellect. But for more than a decade, it was crumbling and it was impoverished from civil war. This destabilized parts of the region. And throughout, those sanctions were really hurting average Syrians.
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Sign in to access all 67 segments of this chapter and more.
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